700th Post!

Hey everyone! I am sorry it's been such a quiet time here. I couldn't believe how long it's been since I've blogged. I've been on the computer a lot but it's always been to buy Christmas presents, check my Google Drive Christmas list, order Mazy's birthday presents, organize Mazy's birthday weekend (which is here!), find recipes for Mazy's birthday brunch tomorrow, order surprise tickets for Mazy's birthday surprise tomorrow night, and a lot of other things.

As you saw from the title, this is my 700th blog post. I must get back in the habit of daily updates if I'm ever going to reach 1000 in 2014.

Today is Saturday morning. Violet was up at 5 with me so she's already napping. Shawn is at the flea market. I'm taking a break from cleaning and decorating to blog for a few minutes. Mazy is watching football videos and Bo is dancing to the show Yo Gabba Gabba. Once our house is clean and ready for birthday brunch tomorrow, we're heading north to Nevada to help decorate my in-law's house. The boys are excited to decorate another Christmas tree.

Our tree has been us since Thanksgiving weekend. It's a rather sad little tree. I really wanted a real one this year but decided to use the artificial one more year. The boys think it's awesome so that's all that matters.

Let's see, where to begin.....

Buddy the Elf
The Elf on the Shelf is back. Good ol' Buddy -- our greatest parenting tool in the month of December. It takes just one mention of his name to get the boys to stop fighting. Buddy has been up to some good tricks already this year. One morning, we woke up to find him and our Santa doll playing checkers with our two new cereals. Another morning he was having a marshmallow snowball fight with some Lego figurines. But his greatest feat, to date, has been last Wednesday.

Buddy started the morning by filling the boys' schoolbags with odd things -- Bo's backpack was full of diapers and wipes (which he did NOT appreciate) and Mazy's messenger bag had a new toilet seat cover and wooden spoons. Buddy also packed the boys' lunches that day. Mazy's lunch was four jars of Christmas sprinkles and Bo's lunch was a can of tuna and a can of kidney beans. Now fortunately for the boys, Buddy put notes in their lunchbags to say it was a joke and that they were going out for lunch instead. He had arranged for me to surprise them by picking them up at noon. Buddy emailed that I was to take the boys to our house and wait for our next surprise. After a few minutes of searching the house for clues, we heard a knock at the door and Grandma Katy walked in. She said, "What am I doing here? Some elf emailed me and said I was supposed to come to your house because we're going to Bass Pro Shop for lunch and bowling!"

As you can imagine, the boys were very excited. It was great! We had a wonderful afternoon. I won at bowling with a score of 86. Bo came in second with 70. Grandma Katy had 68. And Mazy had 65. He says he had bad luck.

Thanksgiving Recap
We had a wonderful Thanksgiving Day at my sister's house. The food was delicious and plentiful. All of my immediate family was there, as well as all of my grandparents and my aunt Sherie, uncle Steve and cousin Luke. We had a really great time. Thanks again, Heidi, for hosting! I have a bunch of pictures that I'll try to get up soon.

Christmas Shopping
With the exception of some stocking stuffers, I am finished shopping for Christmas 2013! Yahhoooo! I have not started wrapping gifts yet, but we'll get that going soon. The house is minimally decorated but enough to make the kids excited, which is, after all, the point of it.

Work News
This week we found out that my boss has resigned and will be leaving our company on the 19th. She has been there for over 10 years so it was a surprise to hear she's leaving. That leaves our little department with just three employees and one part-time employee. Keep in mind, that when I started in 2006, there were over 15 people in our department.... It would appear that something needs to change if our department is going to stick around. I think it's probably a great time for fresh starts. That's all I'll say about that for now.

Cold Weather
It is bitterly cold right now, like 2 or 3 degrees in the morning. Not much fun for getting outside and getting exercise. Also not fun when you have a beautiful little daughter who HATES to wear coats, hats and gloves.... Baby Girl's temper is growing as fast as her curly red hair. So far, I'm not sure which brother's footsteps she'll follow. Will she be slow to anger like her oldest brother? Once riled, his signature fit was what I liked to call The Rumplestilstskin -- he'd stand in place, jump and stomp his feet up and down as fast as he could while roaring his complaint. Or will she take after my middle child (who people have hinted might take after me....) who has a quick and explosive temper that erupts without any warning. His signature fit was to throw his shoes across the room (occasionally he'd throw a chair or table...) and scream bloody murder while the veins in his neck popped out like Hulk.

Well that was an odd tangent from cold weather. I guess my point is that we are hopefully well-prepared for whatever little Violet has in store for us... Oh but she's so sweet! They all are. I love those wild little tempers and defiant attitudes! I can't imagine what life would be like with mild-mannered children. That's not to say that I'd give it a try for a weekend, or a month, or 2014... But hot tempers run in their genes so I see it as my job to help them learn to tame it and save it for the right occasions. By the time they're 18 and heading off for college, they will be ready to take on the world.

I'm sure there are other stories I want to tell you, but none are coming to mind. I had best get to work while the little redhead sleeps. Hope you are all enjoying this wonderful, wonderful time of year. We're hoping for some snow tonight for Mazy's birthday. He would love that! Take care!